January 21, 2011
Sanctity of Life Mass
Pilgrims receive a special blessing for trip to Washington, D.C.
Father David Fleck blesses people who are leaving southern Indiana on Jan. 22 to attend the Jan. 24 March for Life in Washington, D.C. The blessing was given at the end of the Sanctity of Life Mass Jan. 15 at St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville. Father Fleck is the pastor at St. John the Baptist Church and St. Vincent de Paul churches, both in Vincennes. (Message photo by Mary Ann Hughes) Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Pilgrims blended with parishioners last Saturday night at St. Benedict Cathedral during the Sanctity of Life Mass.
The small group of pilgrims is part of the larger group of people from all over the Diocese of Evansville who are heading to the March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. (Related story: 6 buses from diocese heading to Washington, D.C., for Jan. 24 march)
They received a special blessing after the Sanctity of Life Mass which is held annually in observance of the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 which legalized abortion.
Kim Ulrick was at the Mass with her 15-year-old son, Kian, who plans to be a part of the march. When he first heard about the trip to Washington, which is being called the “Pilgrimage for Life 2011,” he was eager to attend. “I always want the opportunity to explore the world,” he said.
His mother, after giving her permission, sat him down and explained that this was not an ordinary trip. This was a pilgrimage. “I explained about Roe v. Wade,” she said, adding that “it took time to absorb in.”
Kian said, “I think abortion is not a good thing, and I think it’s a good thing we are going there to see what we can do about it.”
The Ulricks are parishioners at St. Anthony Church in Evansville where Benedictine Sister Teresa Gunter is the youth minister.
She’s also going on the pilgrimage, and says this is her tenth or eleventh trip. She thinks it’s important for young adults to attend the march “so that they are in the presence of hundreds of thousands of youth who feel the same things.”
She is certain that at sometime in their lives they will “come across a woman who is considering this [abortion],” and she believes the experience at the march will help them counsel a woman to “choose life.”
The Sanctity of Life Mass was concelebrated by Benedictine Father Gregory Chamberlin, pastor at the cathedral, Father Jason Gries, pastor at St. Philip Neri Church in Bicknell and Sacred Heart Church in Vincennes, and Father David Fleck, pastor at St. John the Baptist Church and St. Vincent de Paul Church, both in Vincennes.
Father Fleck gave the homily. He encouraged the pilgrims and the parishioners to “reflect on the fact that life is a gift” that comes with “great dignity. We are a creation of God, made in the image and likeness of God.”
As creations of God, our call is to “recognize in ourselves and in others the awesomeness of God’s work. One of the ways we accomplish this is by recognizing the sacredness of all human life.”
We start, he said, with the unborn “who have no way to protect themselves,” and we must also look “to the other end of life — as a person comes to the point of natural death.”
He said there seems to be a movement in society today to discount the value of the elderly, especially those who can no longer care for themselves. “How sad.”
He also suggested looking at the “years in between” and “not forgetting the importance of remembering the sacredness of each and every human life” in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our country and in our world.
He said everyone — not just the travelers heading to Washington, D.C. — has the responsibility to “reach out to the whole world and be God’s light, his voice, his hands” and cause the world to grow in its “respect for the sacredness and dignity of all human life.”